I got your example to work using 7-zip as shown below. When Windows sees a string with spaces it assumes you are giving it a list of a program and options so it tries to execute the first item in the list. That first item is 'C:\Program' unless you give it double quotes to show the full path to the executable. (Edit: In Corion's answer to the OP quotes are done correctly and fix this issue.)

use warnings;
use strict;

## works: no command line options
my $cmd1 = 'C:\Program Files\7-Zip\7z.exe';  

## works: Double quotes tells Windows where the first argument, the co
+mmand, ends.
my $cmd2 = '"C:\Program Files\7-Zip\7z.exe" l Win32-Console-0.10.tar.g
+z';

## doesn't work: gives message about 'C:\Program' is not recognized...
my $cmd3 = 'C:\Program Files\7-Zip\7z.exe l Win32-Console-0.10.tar.gz'
+; 

foreach my $cmd ( $cmd1, $cmd2, $cmd3 ) {
    open my $fh, "$cmd|" or die $!;
    my $out = do { local $/; <$fh> };  # slurp
    close $fh or die $! ? $! : "\$?=$?";
    print "<<<$out>>>\n";
}

__DATA__
<<<
7-Zip 18.05 (x64) : Copyright (c) 1999-2018 Igor Pavlov : 2018-04-30

Usage: 7z <command> [<switches>...] <archive_name> [<file_names>...]

<Commands>
  a : Add files to archive
  b : Benchmark
  d : Delete files from archive
  e : Extract files from archive (without using directory names)
  h : Calculate hash values for files
  i : Show information about supported formats
  l : List contents of archive
  rn : Rename files in archive
  t : Test integrity of archive
  u : Update files to archive
  x : eXtract files with full paths

<Switches>
  -- : Stop switches parsing
  @listfile : set path to listfile that contains file names
  -ai[r[-|0]]{@listfile|!wildcard} : Include archives
  -ax[r[-|0]]{@listfile|!wildcard} : eXclude archives
  -ao{a|s|t|u} : set Overwrite mode
  -an : disable archive_name field
  -bb[0-3] : set output log level
  -bd : disable progress indicator
  -bs{o|e|p}{0|1|2} : set output stream for output/error/progress line
  -bt : show execution time statistics
  -i[r[-|0]]{@listfile|!wildcard} : Include filenames
  -m{Parameters} : set compression Method
    -mmt[N] : set number of CPU threads
    -mx[N] : set compression level: -mx1 (fastest) ... -mx9 (ultra)
  -o{Directory} : set Output directory
  -p{Password} : set Password
  -r[-|0] : Recurse subdirectories
  -sa{a|e|s} : set Archive name mode
  -scc{UTF-8|WIN|DOS} : set charset for for console input/output
  -scs{UTF-8|UTF-16LE|UTF-16BE|WIN|DOS|{id}} : set charset for list fi
+les
  -scrc[CRC32|CRC64|SHA1|SHA256|*] : set hash function for x, e, h com
+mands
  -sdel : delete files after compression
  -seml[.] : send archive by email
  -sfx[{name}] : Create SFX archive
  -si[{name}] : read data from stdin
  -slp : set Large Pages mode
  -slt : show technical information for l (List) command
  -snh : store hard links as links
  -snl : store symbolic links as links
  -sni : store NT security information
  -sns[-] : store NTFS alternate streams
  -so : write data to stdout
  -spd : disable wildcard matching for file names
  -spe : eliminate duplication of root folder for extract command
  -spf : use fully qualified file paths
  -ssc[-] : set sensitive case mode
  -sse : stop archive creating, if it can't open some input file
  -ssw : compress shared files
  -stl : set archive timestamp from the most recently modified file
  -stm{HexMask} : set CPU thread affinity mask (hexadecimal number)
  -stx{Type} : exclude archive type
  -t{Type} : Set type of archive
  -u[-][p#][q#][r#][x#][y#][z#][!newArchiveName] : Update options
  -v{Size}[b|k|m|g] : Create volumes
  -w[{path}] : assign Work directory. Empty path means a temporary dir
+ectory
  -x[r[-|0]]{@listfile|!wildcard} : eXclude filenames
  -y : assume Yes on all queries
>>>
<<<
7-Zip 18.05 (x64) : Copyright (c) 1999-2018 Igor Pavlov : 2018-04-30

Scanning the drive for archives:
1 file, 29375 bytes (29 KiB)

Listing archive: Win32-Console-0.10.tar.gz

--
Path = Win32-Console-0.10.tar.gz
Type = gzip
Headers Size = 33

   Date      Time    Attr         Size   Compressed  Name
------------------- ----- ------------ ------------  -----------------
+-------
2013-11-28 16:16:37 .....       153600        29375  Win32-Console-0.1
+0.tar
------------------- ----- ------------ ------------  -----------------
+-------
2013-11-28 16:16:37             153600        29375  1 files
>>>

With $cmd3 the following goes to STDERR:'

'C:\Program' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.
$?=256 at C:\usr\pm\pipe.pl line 11.
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